Title: That which is Lost

Author: Megan Faye

Rated: PG

Disclaimer: Fox owns House, and NBC Owns Simon Marsden. (Played by Michael Weston.)

Warning: SEASON 5 Spoilers!!

10 points to who can find the crossover!!

House stared at the phone number for a long time before dialing the number. Once this phone call was made, everything would change again. He hated change, but he owed Wilson. Amber was the only thing in Wilson's pathetic life that didn't screw up. And House had managed to do it for him. Logically, House knew it wasn't his fault. He hadn't meant for Amber to come to the bar, or get on the bus, or take those damn pills before a truck ran a red light and took Wilson's heart and shattered it. He knew it wasn't his fault.

Emotionally, though, he knew it was his fault. He was drunk, called for a ride, then took off before she could pour him into the car, and she followed him. She loved Jimmy so much that she gave her life to make sure House got home all right. Talk about loyalty.

House owed him.

And he knew exactly what he could do to repay him.

"Thanks for meeting me," House said, staring across the desk at the green-eyed man in front of him. "I need to know for sure that you will not tell anyone in this hospital what I am hiring you for. Its important."

"You have my word." The man took out a pen and note pad. "Why?"

"Keeps them wondering what I'm doing."

"I like that."

"What did you do before becoming a private investigator?"

"Well, I was working odd jobs until last winter, when I got pulled into some F. B. I. mess that had almost nothing to do with me. While we straightened it out, I found that I had a knack for finding things, picking up a trail. So they taught me. A lot in as very little time, actually. I worked a few good cases with them, but it wasn't really what I wanted; my sister's the cop, not me. So, I do this on my own now." House eyes him skeptically. "I still help them regularly, but it wasn't my thing. Still have the badge and everything."

"How good are you?"

"Gregory Michael House, age 47."

"Common knowledge."

"You appeared in Rocky Horror in college as Rocky."

"Again-"

"You and 'Janet' tried to have a fling on the set after closing night. Didn't take you long to find out she wasn't a she-"

"Okay!" House said, eye-brows high. "Hired."

"Who am I looking for?"

"Jeffery Ethan Wilson. Has two brothers, James Evan, Jonah Eric. Jeff was last seen homeless on a street corner 13 years ago. Somewhere in Trenton, filthy area, near the river." The man nodded.

"North or South end?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes. Homeless tend to move in patterns around cities. If he was last seen on the north end, he'd have moved south."

"I'm not sure where anymore."

"Give me 3 months."

"How much am I paying you?"

"You saved my sister's life, so I'll cut the fee in half. 5,000."

"Seriously? I saved your sister's life! That's gratitude, only cutting it in half."

"She's my half-sister." House shrugged and took out a check book. "Half now, half if I find him." House nodded and scribbled onto the check. The man read it. "You aren't Robert Chase-"

"He works for me. Wilson's best friend." The man nodded. "What's your name again?"

"Simon. Simon Marsden." He flashed a smile.

"Wilson?" House called into the office before knocking. This was a new concept to him, but the egg-shells he walked on were cracked and broken as it was. "Is it-"

"Go Away, Dr. House," came a cold reply from the other side of the door. House sighed and left without arguing. Cuddy watched silently. They were both destroyed that night. One life gone, so many feeling the loss of it. Dr. Hadley quit a few days later, and Taub was on his best behavior. Kutner was the only one who wasn't totally changed. Cuddy considered putting him in House's place for a short time, but Cameron recommended against it. Instead, she put herself back on House's team when she wasn't to busy in the ER. Cuddy was grateful; House had someone who was under the illusion that she was in-love with him.

"Greg?" Cuddy called gently. He stopped and looked up at her for a moment. There was a silent connection when their eyes met. He was hurting more than Cuddy could comprehend, and there was nothing she could do about it. She managed a small smile over at him before he limped on.

She sighed and went to Wilson's door. There was a long pause before she knocked softly.

"James?"

"Not Now," he said flatly. Lisa opened the door and looked in. "I don't want to talk."

"Then listen." She closed the door behind herself and sat down. "You need to take time off. If you don't take at least 2 weeks-"

"I already took a month off to help Amber's parents take everything she owned from our apartment. Everything of her that I had is gone now, and I can't sit in her apartment looking at the places where her things used to be. I'm working, my charts are done, my patients are getting better, some of them, and I do my clinic hours."

"And you haven't eaten enough to sustain life since-"

"Don't," he said in a dangerously low voice. Cuddy refused to back off.

"You will eat three meals a day with me, Chase, Cameron, Kutner, or Taub. You will eat, and they will sign the sheet, spend that extra hour with you after, and you will put on the 20 pounds you lost this month. Or I'll have you admitted. Do you understand?" Her tone matched his own. "I expect and answer, James."

"Fine, Mother." Wilson understood house House felt. And he damned himself for thinking about House again. "Are you going to give me a cane and a script for Vi-" Cuddy slapped him, hard, across the face.

"Don't. You. Dare. Don't you dare question what I did for Greg to save his life. I would certainly do the same for you, and You asked him to risk his life for Amber when there was nothing we could have done any way. He didn't kill her. You did, you son-of-a-bitch. House wouldn't have let her heart stop. House wouldn't have let her go onto bypass if you hadn't been pulling the strings. House actually cared about you so much that he went against his better judgement, as a diagnostician, to do what you, an oncologist, thought! If you hadn't let her heart stop, she might have lived! We might have gotten the transplants she needed, we might have diagnosed her in time to save her! You screwed up; not him!"

"Don't you think I know that?" he whispered. "Don't you think that I live with that every second of every fucking day? I killed her, and then asked my best friend to risk his life for her. House will never be the same! He's finally cutting back on the drugs and the drinking. I finally got what I wanted; he's not a fall-down drunk off the clock! And I hate him for it! I hate him!" Wilson screamed.

"You don't hate House-"

"You can't possibly get it," he sobbed. "I've become him." Cuddy sucked in a breath. It wasn't House he hated. It was himself. Lisa put her arms around Wilson and held him while he cried.

"Not everything is your fault. Not everyone will leave you."

"Everyone already has."